Interview with WWE's The Miz and Summer Rae

Trying to become Earth's Mightiest writer or at least one that people look for.

Mike "The Miz" Mizanin and Danielle "Summer Rae" Moinet were kind enough to do a phone interview with me for moviepilot.com about their movie "Marine 4: Moving Target" which is now available on blu-ray, DVD, and digital download.

Q: How are you guys doing today?

Miz: WONDERFUL! Best day of my life. I get to promote a movie that I am really proud of.

Q: Happy to hear. First off, I enjoyed the movie.

Summer Rae: Thank you.Miz: Excellent, what did you like about it?

Q: I love the fact that you went RIGHT into the action. There was no 15 minute delay when you're waiting around for it. You went right into it.

Miz: Yeah, it was completely different then the set up of "Marine 3: Home Front". "Marine 3" reminded more of a "Die Hard" feel. We already knew the characters, so let's get right to it.

Q: Well, thank you for taking the time to do this interview I know you guys are short on time. You guys have been running around crazy with these interviews all day.

Miz: Not a problem.Summer Rae: No, it's fun.

Q: How the process of getting the roles? Was it because you were WWE stars so since it's a WWE Film, or do you still have to audition for the role?

Miz: For "Marine 3: Home Front", I got the opportunity to do it. I didn't have to audition or anything. Once I did that movie, I guess they were impressed that they gave me another one *chuckles* you know, and now another one. So, you know, it's all about taking opportunity and making then more opportunities out of it.

Summer Rae: And then for me, not having another diva doing a movie before me, I hadn't thought about it. I had never gotten in contact with anyone from WWE studios, so apparently, Michael Luisi of WWE Studios wanted to get divas more involved and he was asking the WWE who he could have and kept pitching. I guess when he asked Vince (McMahon) about an idea he had for a character to read over the part, tell me who you would pick for a girl and they both said me which is extremely flattering to hear feedback like that. So I knew I was given the opportunity, but it was what I was going to do with it that was going to set me apart from the rest. I was very honored I just knew I had a lot of shoes to fill since I was the first diva to show that girls could do it.

Q: Yeah, and you came out like a ball of fire. I don't want to spoil anything but, your first appearance was "OH, s***, I didn't see that coming."

Summer Rae: I will say Mike (The Miz) gave me a compliment saying "That was a really cool first appearance". And i was like "YES! I'll take it".

Miz: Yeah, I was like, "Yeah, why didn't I get a debut like that". My god, it was really cool.

Summer Rae: When we were shooting that exact scene we were really close to wrapping for the day and we were all thinking we were going to miss the scene for the day hurry hurry hurry and I'm think "We better do this, I'm not cutting this. It's the best part of the whole movie". *Laughing*

Q: It was damn sure one of them. As I'm doing a little research on the odds and ends of things that I might have missed in the movie, I saw a picture of you, Summer Rae, with a sniper rifle and someone standing over you showing you how to use it.

Summer Rae: Yes.

Q: Was that one of the things you had to go through? Like a boot camp or something like that?

Summer Rae: For me, I had never held a weapon or shot a weapon, so training was very important. WWE Studios and FOX Home Entertainment were very adamant about us getting training. For me being a sniper, that's not a random girl that picks up a weapon. That's a trained assassin, killer. So, it was very important that I looked like I knew what I was doing. That was a very rewarding experience.

Miz: My biggest thing was I'm playing a Marine and I've never been a Marine or been in a war zone trying trying fight for our country so I had to make it as authentic as I could for the respect of every man and woman that has served our country. So I put a lot of pressure on myself to make sure when we are doing combative training or weapons training that I learned exactly how they would do everything. That is the least I could do for everything they have done for us.

Q: That makes sense. What was the training like? How rigorous was it?

Miz: "The Marine 3" was a lot more rigorous because it was the first time I had ever done it and the first time I have held a gun and the way I had to hold it like a Marine. For "Marine 4" it was a little different because I've had done it on "Marine 3" it was reminding myself everything how to do it. As far as the fight coordinator and all of our stunt guys, we had 12 hour days and twenty days to shoot the movie and a huge script with a lot of fight scenes. So everyone had to come together and really work with one another and find spare time. Any spare time we had we were always trying to fight and learn new choreography so we could really hone it in and make it look as authentic and gruesome and gritty and raw as possible.

Summer Rae: And the cool thing about that was the people on the movie were incredible. They were family. Mike and I wanted to come out on our weekend off. But that still means the stunt guys and stunt coordinators who live their and have families and they all didn't think twice (about coming in). Afterwards they were all like "Let's go get lunch" "Let's take a group picture". It was so inviting. They welcomes us in and appreciated us. I love this experience. The last day we were all sad to leave. It sounds so corny, but I swear we were all sad to leave.

Q: You guys did this in twenty day?!?!

Summer Rae: Yeah, twenty days. Isn't that crazy?

Q: I'll ask the hokey question. The bumps you take in the ring, did it help with the stuff you did in the movie?

Miz: The way it helps with the art of WWE type wrestling is when you're in the ring and you're brand new you're very tense. You lock up your body and it's hard to move a person and it blows you up and you breathe very heavy and it gets you tired quickly. It's the same with the fight scenes. You have to be loose and fluid so you make everything look smooth and you can actually breathe and not be like "TRYING...TO...DO...EVERYTHING...BUT...IT'S...SO HARD".

Summer Rae: And I had the confidence going in like "Let's do this. I can do my own stunts. This is what I do for a living". So when the director comes in and says "Here's your stunt double" you're like "Ha ha, funny joke"

Q: Last question since you guys have to go, are we going to see Jake Carter again in another movie?

Miz: I sure hope so. I had so much fun doing these "Marine" movies and if they offered me another I'd definitely do it because it's enjoyable and I really like the character and I love doing the movie.: Thanks for taking the time to do this, I appreciate it.

Thanks to The Miz and Summer Rae for being kind enough to do this interview. They were completely nice and jovial during all the time they talked to me. They had been running around all day doing TV appearances and sit downs and still took the time to talk to me. The movie is definitely worth checking out. Pure action.

The Marine 4 is now available on blu-ray, DVD, and digital download.

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